The Dark

[Apple of Eris]

Fifty years ago, for the first time in remembered history, the snows had finally come to southern kingdom of Karganda. That same year, the disappearances started, the rumors of strange happenings in the north, and compounding it all, famine. The following year, refugees began to stream into the kingdom seeking refuge, telling tales of strange beasts that hunted them in the night.

Then it began within the kingdom itself, and it was realized; the Dark had returned.

It had been over three thousand years since the alien creatures had sprung from their underground lairs to slaughter humanity. The remnants of Karganda and the outlying kingdoms had taken refuge from the monsters, protected in their few keeps, caves, and outposts by magic, flame, and sword. Attempts by the Kingdom's generals and wizards to attack the lairs of the dark met with disaster, the armies being slaughtered and enslaved; taken captive in the dark caverns where they would live on the strange mosses until the time they too would be harvested by the bloodthirsty Dark.

In their keeps, the surviving humans began to turn upon one another, threatening to finish what the Dark had not. Bishops of the True God began to denounce Wizardry as evil, the Dark as punishment for the sins of the kingdom in allowing these users of magic to roam free. Priests of the many gods opposed the bishops and civil war threatened to rage within the protected walls.

Then, as strangely as the uprising began, it ended. The Dark abandoned their caverns, slaughtering their prisoners and disappearing. The remnants of humanity emerged from their few remaining refuges and began to rebuild, ever wary for signs of the Dark’s return and battling the winters that began to grow colder with each passing year.

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What is left of the kingdom has spent a generation reclaiming their lands, but their hold is tenuous at best. Raiders plague the borders, famine strikes almost yearly, and snow falls where it has never fallen before. Religious rivalry is leading to open warfare between factions, and the king seems barely capable of rule, being dominated by his councilors.

What will the fate of humanity be?

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The setting is based of Barbara Hambly's Darwath Trilogy, only in a kingdom far away from the events in those books and set fifty years after with humanity facing starvation and disunity as the lands cool and the great northern ices continue to press southward foot by foot every year.

Elves, Dwarves, faeries are only creatures of myth. Wizards are reviled by some and mistrusted by all though their magic helped save the race from the Dark. The priests of the old gods can draw on divine powers, though their numbers have dwindled as true men and women of faith have become harder to find, while followers of the 'One True God', though they have no magical powers have become widespread, denouncing the old gods and wizardry as heresy and the Dark and the famines as divine punishment.

Which side would you join? Will you seek to unite humanity for the good of the race, or try and divide it, seizing personal power in the chaos?

The game will be placed in the NC-Human (unless enough players want extreme, though I doubt that will be necessary).

Oh, yes, and Freeform.

[Anish]

This sounds thrilling, even though I don´t know the mentioned base. As for myself I can imagine being a priest. Let´s hope this game will come alive. Good luck! 

[Apple of Eris]

Priest of which side? The one true god or of the many gods?

And well, hopefully we'll get some interest. Find out in the next few days :)

[Jester]

What do we need to do to apply or show interest?

[Apple of Eris]

give me a character idea, if enough people show interest I'll see about getting this started

[Vella]

This does sound intriguing.  I dont know the books in question, but I am sure I can figure out something.  Perhaps I could play a temple acolyte or other whose lack of knowledge of their surroundings would not hamper play.

[Apple of Eris]

That would be fine, knowledge of the books isn't necessary at all. I only even included that info because I don't like to claim other's ideas as my own. And really, that's just setting, the world is changing and waiting to be explored! :)

Anyway, there are two main religious factions: The 'one god' who are generally fanatical followers of a very strict religion whose priests don't have any true magical powers and believe magic is heresy. And the followers of the 'many gods' the older religions whose priests do have various powers appropriate to their diety, but who have lost the love of man of the people after the gods failed to protect them from the dark.

There are other character options open as well: surviving nobles, warriors, rangers, wizards, merchants, or simple peasants turned to the sword in order to survive. These are times growing desperate as famine spreads and the northern ice continues to creep southward!